Roguecraft DX on Amiga Mega65 and Gameboy Color

This is something I have never seen before - a new game in 2026 released simultaneously for Mega65, Gameboy Color and Amiga! Here is Roguecraft DX from Badger Punch Games!

Actually, Roguecraft DX was first released last year as a physical game cartridge release on Evercade, which I bought as a handheld system in 2025 - here is Roguecraft DX on running on my Evercade Super Pocket handheld: 

If you are interested, you can see more about the Evercade system and it's games on my blog post here. 

The DX version of Roguecraft has more levels and monsters, better graphics, an achievement system and more music than the original game. It is available to purchase from publisher Thalamus's itch.io page here.

I bought the original Roguecraft physical release for Amiga back in 2024. I showed it in this blog post here if you want read more (and see some other great Amiga releases too!)

I really enjoy this game on Evercade, so when they said they would be releasing it as a Mega65, Gameboy Color and Amiga version, I was very happy to buy them! 

The physical box release for Amiga and Mega65 will come soon, but in the meantime I bought the electronic versions to try out.

I was especially interested in the Mega65 and Gameboy Color versions. 

First, let's take a look at the Gameboy Color version, which is completely different to the other versions in that it is 2D rather than an isometric 3D dungeon crawler game. 

I play Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance physical games on my Analogue Pocket handheld which I picked up back in 2024 and covered in my blog here. 

I also have a SD-CARD to Gameboy cartridge adapter for Gameboy Color, that allows me to load electronic releases like Roguecraft DX to play on it also. 

I covered on this blog being able to play PC Engine Hu-Cards, Sega Gamegear and Neo Geo pocket cartridges on it also. I also use it to play Amiga games, Tamagotchi, Gamate, Wonderswan, and Commodore 16 games released on Gameboy too! You can read more about the Analogue Pocket handheld on my blog here and here.

Roguecraft DX on Gameboy color is closer in feel to the original Rogue 64 game that Roguecraft is derived from. I still play Rogue64 via it's physical cartridge release version on my C64 (and Mega65) even today, as I really enjoy that game as well!

The Gameboy Color release of Roguecraft DX is very impressive.

The music, sound and monsters are all reproduced on a 2D mapping, and it plays just as well as it did in isometric 3D. The graphics are excellent.

You can bring up the map and potions to select with by holding down one of the gameboy buttons, which makes them appear briefly to avoid using up valuable space on the Gameboy screen.

You collect various potions, green is always to replenish your health. Blue and red vary in what they do each time you play.

The goal of each level is to find the key, and then the exit that the key unlocks to allow you to exit the level. Oh, and not to do while doing that.

There are many monster, which get harder as you get further in to the game. Treasure chests contains coins to boost your score, but some of the chests are actually monsters that attack you!

A special mention to the faithfully reproduced music. I LOVE the music on the Gameboy Color version. I actually like it better than the Amiga version!

For whatever reason, I find the difficulty curve on the Gamebioy Color release of Roguecraft DX far more forgiving than the Evercade. The original Evercade release (which is in reality the Amiga version) is much harder difficulty in my view.

The exits for each level on the Gameboy color release are much more obvious, with steps leading down. 

The map layouts work so well in 2D. To be honest I kind of prefer it like this. Perhaps that is why I still play Rogue64.

As you kill more monsters and progress, occasionally the monsters drop extra strength bonuses and health bonuses to collect. These boost the number of hits that it takes for you to be killed, and also your strength when fighting enemies - ie. it is easier to kill enemies with a higher strength level.

There is also occasional heart bonuses to restore health. These need to be used strategically as you will often find your health depletes after a particularly difficult series of monster encounters. Replenishing health when it is mostly full already is a waste - keep them for when you really need them.

 

As you complete each level, you get a screen showing the title of the next level to tackle:

Did I mention I love this game?

I have never actually managed to finish the game, but I enjoy replaying it a lot. I got to Level 7 on my first go on the Gameboy Color - on the Evercade I have never got that far...

As mentioned, Roguecraft DX includes a new Achievements feature that adds achievements as you reach certain milestones in the game, collect a number of potions, kill a number of monsters, etc.

Let's take a look at the Mega 65 release next.

The Mega65 version comes as a .d81 floppy disk image. I copied it to the MicroSD card I have in the external MicroSD slot. I can do a simple directory on the Mega65 to see the RC65v100.d81 floppy image.

I can load it from there too, but I want to write it out and run from the real internal 1581 floppy drive on the Mega 65. Why? Why not?

If you want to learn more about the Mega 65 computer (which you can still buy), I have some blog posts about it here, here and here!

I still use my Mega65 today, mainly enjoying the new C64 games releases on cartridge, as it is much easier to swap them around on the Mega65 than on the C64, where I have to pull out the 1541 Ultimate II cartridge and cables for the tape drive connector and floppy drive connector every time I want to use a physical cartridge in it.

The c64 core for the Mega 65 works really well now.

That said, the Mega65 is capable of so much more than just playing c64 titles. The Mega65 deserves more love in regards to new commercial releases in my opinion.

I previously bought Showdown65 and Hibernation1 as boxed physical commercial game releases for the Mega65. 

But I have to say, Roguecraft DX for Mega65 is easily the best release for the Mega 65 so far, It is amazing.

I wanted to use it on real floppy disk though, because...why not?

That said, today I found an issue. I couldn't mount the floppy image to do this.

This is a problem that happens from time to time on the Mega65 and it is annoying. The MicroSD card get fragmented as files are deleted, renamed or overwritten. Eventually the Mega65 won't work with it.

So, I had to prep another SD-Card. This process can be done easily from the early start menu on the Mega 65 by holding the Mega (ALT) key when you turn on the Mega 65 and select the SD-Card prep utility.

You need to prep the SD-Card this way to use on the Mega 65 - you can't just use an normal SD card as it is initially formatted.

I decided to use a 16GB MicroSD card, and it detected it correctly and started to format it when I confirmed to do so.

This process transfers the system files needed to operate the Mega65 from the Slot 0 core, so the system can then use the new MicroSD card core to work from. This means when you update the FPGA core on the Mega 65, it updates on the external MicroSD card. 

This is a safety feature to avoid blocking your Mega 65 doing a FPGA core update...so the Mega65 prompts me below if I want to do this system transfer, which of course I do!

Ok, job done. Power cycle to then boot from the newly formatted MicroSD.

It works. excellent.

Next I copied the Roguecraft DX .d81 floppy image to the new MicroSD card on my Mac Studio. I then inserted the MicroSD back into the external slot on the Mega 65.

Using the Freezer mode, I can then mount the Roguecraft DX to the virtual floppy drive device 9.

With that done, I labelled a blank low density Amiga floppy disk to copy the d81 image to.

I then use the Backup command on the Mega 65 to backup the virtual drive floppy image to a physical low density 3.5" floppy disk I put in the Mega 65 internal physical floppy drive.

Now I can run Roguecraft DX from physical floppy disk. I did a directory of the newly imaged floppy disk and all the files from the original virtual floppy are there, as expected.

I loaded up the game from floppy disk and the drive whirred into life.

I was SHOCKED when the title screen game up. It looks so similar to the Amiga version!

The graphical capabilities of the Mega 65 are very impressive - pushing 8 bit technology to the limits and beyond what the Commodore 65 was supposed to be :-)

The music is amazing. Even better than the Gameboy color music. I like it much more than the Amiga version.

The graphics and gameplay are all intact from the evercade version. There is some loss of colour depth compared to the Amiga, but graphically it is so impressive to see an 8-bit computer doing this in 2026.

The gameplay is identical to the Evercade version. The speed is great, with no noticeable slowdown navigating the isometric 3d world.

I soon got into the groove, enjoying playing this game. You can use a joystick or the keyboard cursor keys with the  space bar to navigate the potion selection when needed. 

As I mentioned, graphically I was blown away by the Mega 65 version of Roguecraft DX. This is lightyears ahead of the Rogue64 original game on the C64.

I didn't get as far as I did on the Gameboy Color version, but I will definitely come back to play this version again and again.

Last, but not least is the Amiga version of Roguecraft DX.

There are some things I didn't expect with the Amiga version. First of all, there is no floppy disk version, unlike the Mega 65 version. Only a WHDLoad archive is supplied with the purchase.

The next surprise was the system requirements - it needs 2MB CHIP memory and 2MB of Fast memory.

It will not run on a stock Amiga 500. Normally 2MB chip memory means AGA Amigas, but it will work on an ECS Amiga, but it needs 2MB CHIP and additional 2MB fast memory to do so.

I also found the whdload image would not launch under AmigaOS 3.2 when using an RTG workbench. It froze on both ECS Amiga 2000 and AGA Amiga 4000T (both with 2MB chip and over 2MB fast). YMMV.

If I use early boot menu early startup and boot no start up, it works from there fine. 

I tested on both Amiga 2000 and 4000T systems and Roguecraft DX looks and runs identically to the Evercade version. Makes sense since it is most likely the same version.

The Amiga version naturally looks better than the other versions on Mega65 and Gameboy Color.

Instructions are accessible from the main menu and easy to follow:

The music is reused from the previous Roguecraft release, but there is new music here and there, with much tougher levels, secret rooms, achievements to unlock, and more monsters.

The game runs flawlessly, and is still lot of fun.

Found the exit, but still need the key...

Graphically there are small improvements, with more animated bonuses and spot effects.

It is much harder than the original Roguecraft though, as I mentioned previously.

There are also secret rooms you can find in some levels. With the Amiga version I find the fights are a bit fairer when using the keyboard rather than the joystick. Perhaps it is just me, but the joystick seems more imprecise.

Smaller passageway style rooms like the one below remind me of Head over Heels and Cadaver for some reason...

As I progress through the levels, the difficulty gets much harder.

Graphically, Roguecraft DX is certainly an improvement over the original Roguecraft on the Amiga. The game engine is essentially unchanged though, apart from the achievements feature.

Moving onto Level 5, I finally found the key to the exit, but have yet to find the exit...fortunately I can use the reveal map potion to find it. It is a small blue dot in the left top of the map in this level. It means I don't need to explore every room with difficult monsters anymore - just make directly for the exit.

Which I duly got to.

On level 6 I unlocked one of the many achievements in the game. You get a brief message on the game screen to let you know. I was a bit slow to get the iPhone out so it was already disappearing!

Here are all the achievements you can unlock in the game:

Level 6 is getting really hard. Spikes everywhere in the room, which you can't always avoid hitting. Managing your health here is difficult as monsters inflict a lot more damage when they attack you, and health potions are hard to find.

But, despite that, I fight my way through the level, found the exit and just need to navigate one monster to get to the exit.

Too difficult it turned out - he killed me.

Almost got the top score - I'll have to try it again!

Lastly, I tried a different difficulty level as Wizard, which is the hardest mode:

With only two hearts of health, this is really hard.

You have to straight up avoid confrontations and try to skip around rooms without fighting. you can shoot your magic missile from a distance, but they advance on your position each time, so it is still hard.

I imagine once you can get some upgrades to health and strength you can fight monsters a bit more, but as it is I lasted only a few minutes. Dead on level 1.

Roguecraft DX is a great game for Gameboy Color, Mega 65 and Amiga. Whichever version you get, if you like dungeon crawlers like this, you will love it.